Thea was intrigued. Just what was he planning? Eager now to find out, her voice hurried along as she no longer attempted to read with any great skill. “While I have a prior engagement this evening and regret I cannot stay long, I don’t doubt we have ample time for me to illustrate the merits of my apology in the way—”
Though there was still a sentence or two remaining, Thea lowered the page. After the titillating exchange they’d carried on this afternoon through Buttons, she’d reached a level of comfort with their relationship that perhaps she shouldn’t have. She’d assumed he’d stay for several hours, if not the entire night.
How foolish. Just because she’d remained at home all day, rather than trek to her horrid room across town to retrieve her meager belongings (something she’d put off a fortnight if she could), she had to remember Lord Tremayne was a peer. A man with responsibilities and associations far removed from her narrow place in his life.
Take heart, he’s here now. “I’m disappointed to hear you cannot remain but I hope your social activities tonight prove enjoyable. It was very kind of you to stop by given your commitments else—”
“Kind?” he laughed. “Nothing of the sort.” A look of mischief entered his eyes. And his posture wasn’t quite so sanguine. “Read on or I might lack sufficient…time.”
She muttered through the last line until she found her place. “Illustrate…merits…of my apology in the way of your interpretation of Hamlet and his maiden—”
The page fluttered from her fingers. “Lord Tremayne!” That was all she said. All she could say, for he surged to his feet and caught the note before it hit the floor.
Holding her gaze, he refolded it, precisely creasing the corners before slipping it into her pocket along with the other. Then he promptly took up her hand, placed it in his, and led her out of the room and directly up the stairs—after no more than a single wink.
He knew he’d shocked her speechless. Good.
Five hours of swapping stimulating raillery had him stiff and ready and craving the taste of her. Had him stopping by now, before his dinner engagement, instead of after, when he’d be too tempted to stay the night—and be selfish all over again.
He’d gotten off to a rotten start last eve, Daniel knew. But he thought their exchanges today had more than made up for it. Beyond his wildest dreams, in fact—her replies had him smiling and laughing and watching out the window for his footman’s arrival like a callow youth in the throes of his first passion.
Daniel thought Thea might be beginning to like him and damned if he’d do anything to interfere. So if last night was for him, then tonight was for her.
Tomorrow night could be for them both.
They reached the landing and he turned toward her bedchamber.
“Nay,” she gasped, digging in her feet and pointing down the hall. At his raised eyebrow, she released her bit-upon lips and said in a breathless voice, “The master chamber. I— You— There’s a mirror!” she finished on a hushed squeak.
A mirror? Grasping her meaning immediately, her hand still tucked snuggly within his, he marched down the corridor until coming to the room he’d briefly glimpsed in shadow the night before. The candles were already lit, several of them, and the bed was turned down.
He released her near the giant canopied bed and leaned in to look up. Sure enough, a large mirror hung overhead, securely fixed beneath the canopy. Five by six feet if it was an inch, and Daniel’s body responded as any red-blooded male’s should. “D-d-damn.”
She’d come up behind him and placed one hand on his shoulder. But her exclamation of “’Tis something, isn’t it?” had gotten severed by his curse.
She jerked back in surprise and met his gaze when he straightened. “You don’t like it,” she said flatly. “You hate it. Forgive me. My room is fine. Let’s—”
He gripped her around the waist when she would have fled. Pulled her spine flush against his chest and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Love it, I…do.” He fancied a tremor racked her frame from the breathy caress of his words. Or perhaps it was caused by his hand, the one not across her middle and edging toward her breast, which couldn’t help but mold to the firm flesh of her right buttock and thigh. “I’m upset…at not having…time to make long and loud and lusty use of it…tonight.”
At his explanation, his kneading fingers, she melted into him. “Tomorrow night, then?” she asked on a lilt, one that had him cursing again—this time his sister and Wylde for tonight’s dinner invitation issued last week. Given the strained relations he’d witnessed yesterday—God, had it been just yesterday?—there was no way he could avoid going this evening.
Nothing that would keep him from returning tomorrow.
In answer, he kissed that delicately sweet spot where her neck met her shoulder, ready to swear anew at the high, unyielding neckline of the deuced dress. “Wardrobe,” he murmured as his fingers started crawling over and lifting the dense fabric of her skirt higher and higher. “Need to b-banish yours to the grate.”
“Aye, likely I do.” It was a heartfelt sigh and he was thrilled when his erection rubbed firmly against her back and she did no more than lean in closer to him. “But—but I haven’t changed yet into—”
She went rigid. A second later she spun to face him and put her arms in between them as if to ward him off. “Wait! The night rail you sent this morning—I forgot to thank you in all the fun of our earlier exchanges. I wanted to put it on—wear it for you—”
“No time.” Gad, if he saw her in that scrap of nothing, he’d never get out of here.
Glossing over her forgetfulness as though it
